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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse  »  John Campbell, Duke of Argyll (1845–1914)

The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse

Alberta

John Campbell, Duke of Argyll (1845–1914)

IN token of the love which thou hast shown

For this wide land of freedom, I have named

A province vast, and for its beauty famed,

By thy dear name to be hereafter known.

Alberta shall it be! Her fountains thrown

From alps unto three oceans, to all men

Shall vaunt her loveliness e’en now; and when,

Each little hamlet to a city grown,

And numberless as blades of prairie grass,

Or the thick leaves in distant forest bower,

Great peoples hear the giant currents pass,

Still shall the waters, bringing wealth and power,

Speak the loved name—land of silver springs—

Worthy the daughter of our English kings.